Hey Ron They say there are 60 plus pound flaties caught there every year. They are hard to come by unless you know the lake. Most of them come from the flooded timber in the river part of the lake where the water comes in. I hope this helps.

The 60 pound flathead in my avatar came from Lake Shelbyville. There are times and places every big flathead that lives in the upper Kaskaskia goes through as most of them winter in the deep water of Lake Shelbyville. I am too lazy to fish it much any more as I have my boat on the lake I live on and don't want to go to the trouble of fishing there. There are plenty of places I would go if I wanted to catch some big flatheads or channels. The "fish hook" area north of Bruce is a good place if you are there at the right time. The Whitley Creek area where the creek comes into the main river channel is a good place. In fact, any of the areas where a creek channel merges with the main river channel is good. Lots of guys catch big channels drifting up near Coal Shaft bridge. Watch and see where the guys are catching crappie, there is usually a big cat around the same area. Find a comorant roost and fish under it, there will always be big channels under it.

I'll agree with these other guys that there are big flatheads in Lake Shelbyville, but they're really hard to find. My dad and others used to catch lots of big ones off trotlines and jugs back in the early eighties, but times were different back then, and you pretty much kept everything you caught. I think a combination of factors have pretty muc decimated the lake's cat population or made it unfishable. First off, rule out any day fishing between Memorial Day and Labor Day on this lake, because the pleasure boaters and jet skiers make it unfishable for hte most part. The corps of engineers has also done a pretty good job of ruining the fishery by varying the lake levels by up to 20ft from one year to the next. This fact really killed the crappie fishery for about a decade, but I here it's finally starting to recover over the past several years.
I lived about three miles from the lake while I was in High School and fished it practically every day during the summer. I don't recall ever catching a catfish out of it and that's no exaggeration. I have heard stories of people who would every once in a while catch a whole trotline full of cats in some isolated cove, but who knows how much is true and how much is exaggeration.
If you're a serious catfisherman, set in on the Kaskaskia below the Shelbyvile dam. I've seen pictures of flatheads that have come out of that river that were real brutes, and apparently there's a pretty healthy population still in the river.
Either way, if you ever get a chance to fish Shelbyville, good luck.:0a23:

There are plenty of catfish in Lake Shelbyville, you just need to know where to fish for them and how to catch them. As for the boaters and such, generally speaking, the best cat holes are where these folks would never be. Shelbyville is a big lake, most folks don't know how to fish for catfish in it. And, there is great catfishing in the Kaskaskia north of the lake. I don't fish over there too much any more but I used to bring in some huge loads of catfish when I did. They are still there, you just need to know where to look for them.

I think you and I are saying about the same things. If you're targeting catfish, don't hit Shelbyville's main lake. The Kaskaskia river, both north and south of the lake and much better bets for cats. As far as recreational boaters go, though, I've seen idiots on jetskis come way up the Kaskaskia north of the lake, and I've also seen them running around in the backs of coves that are full of stumps that are hidden just below the surface of the water. Don't put anything past a drunken moron on a Sea-doo.

fishin in lake delavan wisconsin one year for bass in a weed bed a jet skier probably drunk came flyin in the cove went around me twice and on the third time found the boulder i was fishin with his sea-doo not a good thing he acted like nothin was wrong and tryed to get back on it and get it goin but it was so smashed up i was amazed it stayed up enough for him get it the hell away from me